After a hard fought draw with Morpeth the previous Saturday, Garnett went to Forest Hall in reasonably buoyant mood. Two previous victories against them this season, though both tight matches, meant that a further victory was anticipated. All the pre match talk was about having to get three points in order to achieve the goal of promotion. Even though Alnmouth lost earlier in the season to Forest Hall, the consensus in the changing room prior to kick off was the team's other promotion contenders would not slip up against them.

Garnett started the match poorly and were luck not to concede a goal as early as the first minute when Forest Hall hit the post with a free-kick. Sloppy passing in the first 15 minutes was putting the defence under a lot of pressure. Thereafter Garnett began to improve. Cave and Buckley were combing well down the left and from one such move Thompson thought he had scored from a Cave cross. However, the effort was ruled off for offside. Cave, playing out of position on the left of midfield, was having a good match. After being released by a high-quality pass from Hindley, he picked out Sherwood on the near post, who perhaps should have scored rather than hit the woodwork. Shortly after this the Forest Hall keeper made a great save from King's 20 yard effort from the right.

This period of half decent Garnett pressure was short lived. Forest Hall started to dominate the midfield. Hepburn made a couple of excellent saves to keep the game level. The Garnett back 4 were put under more and more pressure as the half wore on. The midfield were expending much of their energy in trying to win to ball back. This appeared to be taking its toll on the players as when the ball was won back it was too easily returned to the opposition. This was partially due to sloppy passing and also a lack of options for the player in possession. Several players were guilty of this. Mercer and Hindley were not picking out Garnett players often enough and King was being caught on the ball too often. Cavanagh, after winning the ball in defence, should have released Sherwood in a dangerous position on the left but his pass was terrible and simply intercepted. Long balls from the defence were hit in hope rather into space that Jay and Danny could run into.

It was in this period that Forest Hall took the lead. After chasing shadows for almost 10 minutes, with Mercer putting his usual extreme efforts for the cause, Garnett won the ball back when Hepburn competently caught from a right wing cross. He then threw the ball out to King in the hope to start a swift counter attack. King however lost possession. The ball was knocked to the Forest Hall centre forward who laid it off to his colleague for a shot from distance. Partially aided by an unfortunate bounce, the ball deceived Hepburn in goal and rolled into the net. Although a lucky goal, it could not be argued that Forest Hall deserved their lead.

The remainder of the half was, at best for Garnett, evenly contested. Needless to say, manager Alan Wilkinson was none too impressed with the display and he made his feelings known at half time. Garnett started the second half with a renewed vigour and for about 15 minutes looked like they might turn the result around. Thompson and Sherwood were getting the ball to feet more often and were beginning to look more threatening. Finally, the apparent lifeline came. Thompson was tripped in the box and the ref awarded a penalty. Even though he missed from the spot against Morpeth last week, Sherwood was still keen to take it. Unfortunately he blasted the ball over the bar. Perhaps he will be relieved of such duties for the remainder of the season?

After this there was a sustained period of scrappy play. Garnett didn't create a single noteworthy chance until the last 10 minutes when there were a few goal mouth scrambles. Forest Hall, on the break, looked more likely to score a second. From one such break down their right, when Buck stopped assuming the ball was out, the Garnett defence was badly exposed. Luckily, Hindley worked back and pressurised the Forest Hall striker enough to scuff his shot wide. Hall and Mullen were then brought on for Mercer and King in an attempt to change the game. However the pattern didn't really alter. Hepburn had to make another couple of excellent saves, one from a free kick that he tipped around the post. Important interceptions were also required from Brown and Alexander to prevent further possible Forest Hall opportunities.

Corcoran was then brought on for the despondent Sherwood. Full of tricks, Corcoran was causing the Forest Hall defence problems. If only he had a right foot! In the last 10 minutes there were several goalmouth scrambles, mainly resulting from corner kicks. The Forest Hall keeper twice made good saves from Taffy, denying him his first goal of the season, and he acrobatically tipped a deflected Thompson shot over the bar. In fact the keeper had an inspired game for Forest Hall. As well as all the saves he made, he plucked every cross from the air that came near him during the 90 minutes. In the dying moments Hall went extremely close with a near post header from a Thompson corner. This difficult opportunity was Garnett's last chance to salvage a draw and the fact such a hard chance even gets mentioned in this report shows how few openings Garnett actually created.

All players were naturally disappointed after the game. None more so than Sherwood. However, he should realise that there have been several games this season were his finishing has been the difference between Garnett and their opposition and this is something he should not forget.

The game did highlight the fact that there is a heavy reliance on him and Thompson to not only, score the goals, but often having to create them too. Apart from Hall (who has 7 goals), there are no regular scorers from midfield in the team and Sherwood and Thompson between them have scored well over half of Garnett's goals this so far this season. It is also noteworthy that in the 5 games this season (incl friendlies) that neither of them have scored in, Garnett have only won one of these matches.

On the positive side, Hepburn again had an excellent game (but perhaps he should have done better with the goal!) and Dave Cave showed what an accomplished player he is. It was just disappointing that too many other players played below what they are capable of, although nobody was particularly poor. Fortunately Alnmouth only managed a draw in their game with Ashington, so not much ground was lost on the leaders

Author: Shaun Cavanagh

Team: F.Hepburn, M.Brown, M.Buckley, S.Cavanagh (MoM), A.Alexander, S.King ,
D.Mercer (D.Mullen), N.Hindley, D.Sherwood (D.Corcoran), J.Thompson, D.Cave,
Sub not used: D.Robinson